


Five Years—The Five Long Years Away Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-22 20:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7452648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened when Sophie didn't return in season two?  AU after The Two Live Crew Job, season two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Five Long Years Away

**Author's Note:**

> This just came to me one day. What would have happened if Sophie hadn't returned to Leverage at the end of season two, but waited for five long years to visit? Lots of traumatic things could have happened. I'm still using major plot points for the series, but mixing them up, adding and subtracting as I go along.

Takes place five years after The Two Live Crew Job, season two, AU after that

Five Years—The Five Long Years Away Job

Chapter One—Five Long Years Away

Five years.  Five long years of no grifting, no thieving, no cons.  As Sophie walked down the familiar street in Boston, she realized that she missed it, very much.  It had been freeing not to look over her shoulder, hoping that some police organization or mark wasn’t trailing her, hoping to take her down for all the crimes she had committed over the years.

The sign to the bar was still the same, but she wasn’t.  After leaving the team, burying herself in that grave, it had freed her to become someone else.  Sure, she liked that person now.  But there was always something in the back of her mind that made her want to be Sophie Devereaux again.  She went by Sophie, but not Devereaux.  She missed that persona.  That was the persona that belonged in Boston, with a group of people she thought of as family.

She had been tempted at first, to come back and face them all.  After speaking with Tara a few times, and the fight with Nate over video, she realized that she had to take a break, much longer than anyone had anticipated, including her.

Opening the door of the bar, there were a quite a few people present, but it wasn’t full. As Sophie sat down at one of the tables, she breathed in the familiarity of it all.  She missed this.  She missed the feeling of home.

Her home now was in Switzerland.  It was far enough off the beaten path so that she could relax a little, not wondering if someone was going to find her.  She was certain that Hardison could, because he could find anything or anyone.  She had asked him though to not.  And he had honored her wishes.  The team faded into the background, part of her past.

Something had brought her back though.  Five years of finding herself.  That had to be plenty.  Her job had kept her busy, she’d had a few boyfriends, but nothing serious. 

Breathing in and out, she savored the smells of the bar, the liquor, the food, the old wood.  Many times these smells mixed with Nate’s aftershave, Parker’s oil that she used for her harnesses, Eliot’s shampoo, Hardison’s cologne. 

“Hey,” a voice behind her announced hesitantly.

Contacting Tara first was probably a smart move.  She hadn’t wanted to barge in on the team because she had no idea if they’d be receptive of her being in their space.  Tara was the most likely to make contact with and not be angry.  Speaking to the other grifter though, it seemed that all was not well.  She wouldn’t give Sophie specifics, but told her if she wanted to know what was going on, then she had to come out of hiding.  The edge to Tara’s voice said it all.  Something was terribly wrong.

“Tara,” Sophie said as she climbed out of the booth to hug her friend.

Tara pulled away quickly, like it was painful for Sophie to hug her.  That had never been the case before.  They always knew that they could rely on one another, even if they sometimes were angry with each other.

“You’re here?”

“Yes. I said that I’d be here.”

“Well.  Yeah.  Just didn’t know if you’d follow through.  So how’ve you been?”

Tara slowly sat down across from Sophie, eyes darting around the room like she didn’t want to be seen with her old friend.

“I’m fine.  I just wanted to see everyone, see how everyone is doing.”

Tara tried to smile, but gave up and put her chin down.  Looking up, she grimaced a little, attempting to put on another face.  Tara’s grifting skills were good, Sophie remembered, but often there were times that the least little thing could give her away.  She didn’t look like she used to; her hair was down, naturally curling, modest shirt and pants, with a jacket to ward off the chill in the air.  Tara looked like any average citizen in Boston, not like the man-eater she portrayed on several cons.  Had she possibly settled in with the team?

“Why’d you come back, now?”

“It’s been five years.  I just…”

“Not sure this is a good idea.  I can’t do this.  You have to leave.”

Now that was perplexing.  Sophie had come half way across the world to see her friends.  She knew it would be difficult, but it couldn’t be impossible.

“Can you just tell me what’s going on?”

“No, I just, I have to go.”

Scooting out of the booth, Tara quickly got to her feet, but stopped short just as she did.

“Dammit, Eliot.”

Sophie quickly swiveled her head around.  He must have come from the back of the bar because Sophie didn’t see him come in the front.  She’d wanted to ease into seeing each one of them.  Now was as good a time as any.  Seeing Eliot might be the easiest since he might understand why she left and stayed gone in the first place.

“Sophie,” Eliot said as he stood next to the table.

“Eliot.  What a pleasant surprise,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Why are you here?” his gravelly voice asked, keeping it low.

“I was in town, thought I might drop by.”

“Liar,” he blurted out, knowing her too well.  “Just tell me why you’re here.  Are you on a job?”

“I don’t, I don’t do that anymore.  I’m just here to see you.”

Eliot huffed out a laugh, but the laugh was one of sorrow, not of amusement.

“Really?”

“Eliot, listen.  Maybe we should give her a chance,” Tara questioned, hands up in a pleading gesture.

“Chance?  She abandoned us.  Now you gonna come back?  Why?”

“Because I missed all of you.”

Eliot leaned down into her space, which frightened her for a minute, but made her realize that there was a tremendous amount of hurt in his voice.

“Took you five years to miss us?”

“I missed all of you every single day I was gone.  Every single minute.”

“You’ve gotta a funny way of showing it.”

Just then, both Tara and Eliot’s phones beeped.  They both grabbed them simultaneously, reading the text as they did.

“Upstairs,” Eliot said, bolting for the back.

“What’s going on?” Sophie asked as Tara quickly followed.

“Come on.  You want to find out what’s been going on?  Might as well be now.”

Eliot made it up the stairs in record time with Tara close behind.  It took Sophie a few more seconds to catch up.  The door to Nate’s apartment stood open.  She could hear several voices as she approached the entryway.  Rushing in, what she saw was not what she would ever picture happening.


	2. Everything's Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brace for it. Lots of hurt in this chapter.

Chapter Two—Everything’s Changed

“I’m OK.  I am OK, folks.  Geez.  Just, I’ll get back in.  Just chill.”

Hardison sat on the floor, legs at an awkward angle.

“You have to, we have to get, help, we, I…” the voice called out, that had his back turned to her.

The curls were longer, but she’d know that voice anywhere.  He was dressed in a short sleeve t shirt and jeans.  Kneeling on the floor next to Hardison, she could tell that Nate was breathing heavily, like he was distressed.

“OK, Nate.  It’s OK.  It’s not his fault, guys,” Hardison commented, attempting to move his legs with his arms.  “My fault.”

“Nate, come on.  He’s OK,” Eliot gently said as he got down on the floor with him.

“He just, he was there.  It happened so fast.”

“Nate, he’s OK.  Let’s just take it slowly,” Tara added.

Sophie tried to take it all in, tried to figure out what in hell was going on.  Hardison was on the floor, not moving correctly.  Nate was incoherent, obviously upset about what had happened to Hardison.  Both Tara and Eliot were almost treating Nate like he was a child.  Then she spotted it.  The wheelchair behind Hardison made her dizzy.  What on earth had happened while she was away?

“He can’t, he can’t,” Nate wailed, crossing his arms over his legs.

“Nate, look at me,” Eliot started, “he’s OK.  Look, if he says he’s OK, then he is.”

Tara and Eliot helped the hacker back into the wheelchair.  His legs won’t work, Sophie saw.  Oh god no.  What had happened?

“See?  I’m good, Nate,” Hardison called from his new position.

“Yeah, you are. Yeah.”

Every time Parker entered a room, no one would see her.  She’d just appear out of thin air, to be right there beside them.  It was a bit creepy when they first started working with one another, but they all had gotten used to it.  Now was no exception.  Parker had appeared directly beside Sophie, quiet as a mouse.

“Hey, Nate,” Parker said quietly.

Slowly the thief edged her way onto the floor next to Nate, looking as if she’d figure out how to stop whatever was going on with him. 

“He’s fine.  Probably just dropped his pen or phone.  Look at me, OK, sweetie?”

Sophie wanted to cry, was starting to cry as she watched Parker take Nate’s hand in hers, gentle as she’d ever seen her friend be with someone else.  Nate hesitantly grabbed onto Parker’s hand, looking up at her finally.

“He fell,” Nate managed to get out.

“And he’s OK.  We talked about this before.  You know how clumsy Alec can be.  You just need to call one of us.”

“I did.  Just like you taught me.”

Sophie wanted to throw up.  Her stomach did flips as she watched Nate on the floor, looking lost and alone.  But no, he wasn’t alone.  Parker was holding his hand, Eliot stood directly behind him, Tara was in his line of vision and Hardison sat in his chair right behind Parker.

“We gotcha, Nate,” Hardison reminded him.

“Sophie?” Nate got out, tears now streaking his face.

“Nate,” she started, only to see him get up as fast as she’d ever seen him move and run up the stairs.

Putting her hand over mouth, Sophie gasped as she stood directly in front of her friends.  Nothing was the same.  Everything had changed.

“What happened?”

Parker turned and ran after Nate, taking the steps two at a time.

“Welcome to Leverage Incorporated, version two point o,” Hardison announced as he wheeled over to where Sophie stood.

The whole room was set up just to accommodate Hardison’s wheelchair.  It still looked similar to what it was before, but now the tables were lower for Hardison to reach, everything had space for a wheelchair to get through easily.

Bending down, Sophie wrapped Hardison up in a tight hug, trying to quell her tears.  He smiled as she raised up, looking genuinely happy to see her.

“Hey, Soph.  Long time, no see.”

“Oh, Alec. I didn’t know.”

“It’s OK.  I’ll be four wheeling in no time, you just watch.”

“Hardison, are you sure you aren’t hurt?” Tara asked behind him.

“Yeah.  I’m good.  Make sure Nate’s OK.”

Tara wandered off upstairs while Eliot took a seat at the table in front of the displays.  It looked like they still were in the game, with files called up on the screens.

“You wanna know what happened?” Eliot said softly.

“What’s wrong with Nate?”

Hardison sighed and shook his head.  Sophie could see the tears forming in his eyes, but he turned so that she couldn’t see them.

“Dubenich,” Eliot growled.

“He’s in prison,” Sophie started, but stopped when she saw Eliot’s hand come up.

“He got out.”

“You should have called me.  Hardison knew where I was.  Why didn’t you?”

Hardison moved over to his station and started typing.

“Because Nate emphatically told us not to.  Any of us.  It was crazy with Jimmy Ford dying, the explosion.  You gotta understand,” Hardison said as he pulled up some files.

“His father died?  Just what on earth did all of you get involved in?”

“Run it, Hardison,” Eliot said, sounding an awful lot like Nate.

“It’s just, I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Then I’ll do it,” Tara said from the stairs.

“Nate?” Eliot asked.

“He’s calmed down.”

“Good.”

“Nathan Ford, mastermind, pain in all of our asses, if you ask me, has gotten himself into more trouble over the past five years.”

“He’s gone to prison,” Eliot remarked, pointing to Nate’s booking photo.

“Why?  What were you doing, Eliot?  You’re supposed to protect him.”

“Sophie, honest to goodness, if you say one more word about me not protecting him, I will leave.”

With that, Sophie shut up.  She didn’t want to accuse Eliot of not doing his job because she knew how difficult it was to rein in Nate when he was on a roll.

“A con gone wrong.  We thought it was a case of corruption.  Politics and all that.  But we were wrong,” Hardison told the rest of them.

“Sterling showed up.”

“Oh bloody hell,” Sophie swore.

“Nate protected us by going to jail.  To hook the mark, we bribed him.  What we didn’t realize was the FBI and Interpol were working on a parallel case against an arms dealer.  We got pulled in,” Tara added, crossing her arms over her.

“And Nate got shot and arrested,” Eliot told her.

“Sterling shot him?” Sophie said, seeing red and promising herself that if Sterling were responsible, then she’d hunt him down herself.

“No, the arms dealer did.  He was lucky on that one that Tara came in the last second and saved him.”

“It took us over a year to get him sprung.”

“He was a fugitive after we broke him out,” Eliot said as Hardison pulled up Nate’s arrest record.

“If he’s a fugitive, then how is he still here? And why is he acting strangely?”

“For taking down another bad guy, the government gave him immunity.  Damien Moreau,” Eliot told her, looking down at his feet as he did.

“Damien Moreau?  He’s way too big to take down.”

“Well, according to Sterling, he wasn’t too big to take down.  We worked with the Italian government along with Interpol.  It was a thing of beauty.  Nate was on fire,” Hardison said as he clicked through the photos and files.  “We took down a country.”

“A small country,” Eliot added, smiling a little.  “Sometimes democracy is a good thing.”

“That doesn’t explain what’s wrong with him.”

“We didn’t know that almost every con we pulled was being monitored.  We had some CEO asshole making billions off of our taking down sleaze bags.  Dubenich was running the show from prison.”

Sophie looked at Hardison like he was crazy.  How could they have been manipulated like that? How could Dubenich maneuver them all so well?

“Nate decided to take on Dubenich’s patsy, Latimer.  Latimer was trying to double cross Dubenich.  It was a disaster.  Dubenich tried to kill Nate, only to get Jimmy Ford instead. Nate went after both of them.  I couldn’t protect him.  I tried to pull him back.  It all went wrong.”

Sophie could tell that Eliot was deeply hurt by what had happened.  Obviously something had happened to Nate and Hardison when they were trying to take down Dubenich.

 


	3. The Price

Chapter Three—The Price

“Nate and Alec paid the price,” Parker said from the stairs.

“Hey, mamma, don’t blame Nate.  We all agreed.”

“We did.”

Sophie hadn’t gotten a good look at Parker before she had rushed upstairs to take care of whatever Nate needed.  She looked so much older than she had been before.  Sophie was always envious on how young Parker looked without even trying.  It looked as if the years had weighed her down.  The bags under her eyes, her sallow skin, her hair chin length, tangled.

“Nate lured Dubenich to a dam, hoping to take him down.  One of his henchmen pushed Hardison off a ledge.  It was either let Hardison die or Nate to get shot.  We thought that Nate was OK, gunshot wound to the side and one to the leg.  He threw a clot in surgery and suffered a stroke.  Hardison broke his back in three places, paralyzing him from the waist down.”

Eliot rarely had tears in his eyes, but after that, she could see he was hurting.

“When?” was all Sophie could get out.

“Over two years ago.  We moved to Portland for a while to get Hardison treatment and start fresh, but Nate was getting worse, so we came back here.  He’s made progress.  So has Hardison,” Tara said to Sophie.

“I should have come back.  I should have come back,” Sophie chanted as she backed to the door.

“Don’t leave,” Parker cried out, looking lost.

“I just, I can’t.  I’ll be back.  Just give me a minute,” Sophie sobbed, running out the door.

Collapsing outside the door, Sophie buried her head in her hands.  She didn’t want everyone to see her fall apart.  She thought that this reunion would be sweet and short and then she could go back to her life, her quiet life that she had created.  This was not what she was expecting.  If she could transport herself back to that point where she walked away from Nate in that cemetery, she would.  Leaving him had been the most difficult thing she’d ever done.  She was honest when she told them that she missed them all every minute, every second of the day.  Sometimes she dreamed of Nate, how it could have been if she had stayed.  He was sober.  He had asked her out to dinner, but she had refused, having moved on with a boyfriend. Only the boyfriend wasn’t a real boyfriend.

Parker slid down the wall with her, taking Sophie’s hand into hers.

“This is all so fucked up,” Parker sighed.  “Sorry, this is just a bad day.  We do have good days.  And we still con people for a living.  Tara runs it all now, believe it or not.  She and Eliot.  Hardison’s OK.  He really is.  We, we’re together now.  It took a while, but it happened.  He’s great.”

“Why are you being nice to me?  I left.”

“I always knew you’d come back.”

“Oh Parker,” she said as Parker squeezed her hand.

Parker, her Parker from five years ago, would never had held hands with her, much less sat with her while she cried.  Her Parker would have possibly patted her on the back and left quickly. 

“You’ve changed, Parker.”

“Hardison is so touchy feely,” Parker laughed.

“And Eliot and Tara?”

Parker made a face when she said that.  “Oh, I am not going there, as Hardison would say.”

Sophie laughed a little at that.  Her friend, who said she’d never settle down with a man, much less settle down, had been with the group for five years.  And Eliot?  She certainly didn’t think that Eliot would let any woman that close.

“And Nate?”

“Oh, he had some fling with Maggie, but that only lasted a few months.  He went back to drinking.  I didn’t ask about who and where.  I didn’t want to know.”

Maggie came back to him?  Now that did surprise her.  She had always thought that there was too much between the two of them.

“It seems that Maggie had a fight with Sterling, so she turned to Nate.  Almost like a soap opera if you ask me.”

“What?  Sterling?  Is she crazy?”

“Apparently.  And now she’s gotta kid.”

Sophie closed her eyes, wondering how much Nate had been hurt in the past few years.

“Anything else I need to know?”

“That he has missed you every single day since you left.  After the shooting, he kept asking for you.”

“You should have called me.”

“I know.  Eliot refused.  We couldn’t budge him.  He’s so angry with the world right now, Sophie.  We all keep telling him that it’s not his fault, but Dubenich’s.  He’s so obsessed right now to find him.”

Sophie perked up at that.  Dubenich wasn’t caught? 

“He escaped after shooting Nate and Latimer.  Latimer died, Nate almost did.  He and Alec almost died that day.”

“I am so sorry I wasn’t here,” Sophie said, pulling Parker into a hug.

“So am I.  We need to find Dubenich.  We need to make him pay for what he did.”

Sophie pulled away from Parker, looking into her eyes.  The look of determination in Parker’s eyes said it all.  This would not be over until Dubenich was taken down, permanently.

“How is Nate, right now?”

“Confused.  I calmed him down though.”

“Can I see him?”

“Let me go talk to him.”

“Why you?”

“Why am I taking care of him?  I have to.  None of the rest of them can.  Eliot is too guilty, Hardison can’t.  Tara doesn’t know how.  I’m here.”

It’s what family would do, Sophie thought.  It’s what she should have done years ago.  Now she was here though.  She’d figure out how to fix all of this.


	4. Just Getting By

Chapter Four—Just Getting By

Eliot still wouldn’t get too near Sophie, but he wasn’t objecting to her being in the apartment.  Turning to the kitchen, he disappeared in there, clanging pots and pans as he did.

“So, what have you been up to?  No grifting?” Tara asked, trying to have an honest to goodness conversation with Sophie.

“I work in a small museum.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.  It keeps me busy.  I like the work.”

“Nine to five job?  Who would have thought that Sophie Devereaux has a nine to five job.”

“It’s no longer Devereaux.”

“Still Sophie though?” Hardison asked, joining the conversation.

“Yes.  That name stuck.  Did you know where I was?”

“You did give me the slip in France there for a while.  After that, I stopped looking.  Of course I would have found you, Soph.”

“You’re just that good.”

“Still am the best.”

Hardison turned to his computer to start typing again.  His disposition was certainly the same, that smile on his face, his personality.  Was it all an act?  She hoped he still had it in him to make something of himself.

“Always was.”

Parker motioned for her to follow up the steps.  Now Sophie’s heart was beating a mile a minute.  What would she find once she got up there?  She’d seen only a few minutes of Nate.  They had to live with him and his issues for a few years.

“Soph, take it easy on him,” Tara said as she wound her way up the stairs.

Nate’s room was awash in light, curtains open, window slightly ajar even though it was a bit chilly outside. 

“I told him he had to open the curtains.  It’s usually so dark in here.  Some fresh air too.  Nate, Sophie’s here.”

Nate sat in a large chair by the window, with a book in his hand.  He wasn’t reading it, just holding it.  His glasses were perched on his head, like he was just getting ready to start a good book.

“Oh, yeah.  Did you check on that thing I asked you to check on?”

“What thing, Nate?” Parker asked.

“I, I don’t remember.  Can you?”

“Nate, we’ll figure that out later.  Sophie wants to talk to you.”

“Sophie?”

Looking up, Nate focused on her finally.  His eyes hadn’t lost their intense blue, standing out against his pale skin.  His face was scruffy, beard turning grey with age.  His longer hair was streaked with grey now, changed from the brown of a few years ago.  His button up shirt was twisted a bit, like he didn’t like the feel of it on his skin.  He moved his legs here and there, like he couldn’t get comfortable in the chair.

“He’ll be OK.  He’s not violent or anything.  Just gets confused.  Call me if you need me.  I’ll be right downstairs.”

Oh god, she was going to leave her with Nate and no backup.

“What do I do?”

“Just talk to him.”

With that, Parker walked out.  Was she punishing Sophie for leaving?  She had no idea what to do.  Slowly walking over to where Nate sat, Sophie looked down at the former mastermind.  She knew she had to hold it together, if just to not make Nate agitated.

“Hey?” she started.

“Oh, I was going to read this book.  Hardison found it on the internet.  He’s good at that sort of thing.”

“Yes, he is. Always has been.”

“He’s hurt.  I have to help him.”

“How so?”

“When they go out, I have to look out for him.”

So they gave Nate a job to make him feel useful.

“That’s very kind of you.”

“It’s my job now.”

He looked proud of himself, that he could contribute to the team like this.  The other Nate, her Nate from before, would never have done this.

His curls were longer, he’d lost weight. The funny thing was he didn’t look like he’d aged that much other than the greying of his hair.  His forehead was smooth, not like it was before, when he was troubled with solving a problem with a con or was drinking.  At least now he didn’t drink.

“It’s a good job.”

“Tara runs the cons now. I help out when I can.  Taking care of Alec is a full time job.”

“I bet it is.”

Lowering herself to the floor in front of him, she took his hand in hers.

“Sophie?”

“Yes, Nate.”

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

“Dubenich, he got the best of us.  You know that, don’t you?  Are you mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Hardison got hurt because of me.  I got shot again. Guess I don’t know how to duck.”

Reaching up to touch his face, he closed his eyes at her warmth. 

“I guess not. It’s not your fault, Nate.  He’s a bad man.  You had no idea.”

“I did.  I knew he was bad.  He killed Jimmy.”

“I know.  Eliot told me.”

“It’s just, they’re all I have.  He would have killed them all.  He killed Jimmy.”

“Oh, sweetheart.  I am so sorry.”

Raising herself to her knees, she looked into Nate’s eyes.

“I’m sorry I made you leave.”

Sophie shook her head no, tears spilling from her eyes.

“You didn’t make me leave.  I left because I needed to.  I should have come back.”

“It’s OK.  I love you, Sophie.”

Sophie’s heart broke at that statement.  He loved her, or was it just because he didn’t understand what was going on?

“No, you don’t.”

“I, after it all happened, I realized that I couldn’t wait for things to happen.  I tried to figure out where you were.  I had to tell you.”

This wasn’t her Nate.  Not even the Nate that she worked with for almost two years.  Oh, what should she do?

“I may be confused. I know they all think that there’s something really wrong with me.  But there’s one thing I do know.  I’ve loved you forever. Just so you know.”

“Oh Nate,” she said as she pulled him into an embrace.

He slid onto the floor with her, hugging her tight as he did.  Burying her hands in his hair, she held him close as he cried.

“Don’t leave, please.  Don’t leave.  I love you, Soph.  Don’t leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere.  We have to find Dubenich.”

“And kill him,” Nate said, raising his head from her shoulder.  “There’s not going to be any mercy this time.  He will not hurt anyone else in my family.”

The look in Nate’s eyes said it all.  He was sane, not confused right at that instant.

“Nate?”

Leaning against the chair, Sophie pulled him to her again. He laid his head on her shoulder, burying his face in her hair.

“I missed you, Soph.”

They sat that way until Sophie’s legs fell asleep.  Shifting to get the feeling back in her legs, Nate also shifted, lying his head on her chest, arms around her middle.  This was what she’d wished they had done years ago, but it was never to be.

“You’re so warm,” he said as he tightened his hold on her.

“My legs have fallen asleep.”

“Here, let me move,” he told her as he rolled her onto the rug.

Sophie’s breath left her as he did, with him landing on top of her, legs entangled with hers.  Looking down at her, he lowered his head to hers, the kiss soft and gentle.  This was not what she had expected.  He was hurt, possible brain injury.  She felt like she was taking advantage of him.

As he deepened the kiss, his hand started to roam, pulling up her shirt, stroking the skin as he did.  This was not right, she chanted in her brain.

“Nate, stop.  Just please stop.”

“I love you, Sophie.”

“We can’t.  Can you please let me up?”

He looked a bit confused at her question, but eased up so she could escape.

Standing up, he put his hand down to help her up.

“One more thing, Soph,” he started as she tried to get away from him.  “I still love you.”

Kissing her wrist, he let her go.

“I have to go.  Ask Eliot something.  You’ll be OK, up here?”

“Yeah.  I have to plan.”

Sophie looked at him, wondering what he was up to.  Beside the fact that his mind wasn’t working the way it used to, what if they all were not giving him credit where credit was due?  What if he could function better than they thought?

“Plan what, darling?”

“How to kill Dubenich once and for all.”

The sinister look on Nate’s face was unmistakable.  She’d only seen it once before, when they wanted to take down Blackpoole.  Then he had been stinking drunk.  Now he wasn’t.


	5. We Need To Do Something

Chapter Five—We Need to Do Something

“We need to talk,” Sophie said to all of them as she came back down the stairs.

“Is he OK?” Tara asked.

“I wish I understood more about what happened to him.  Just help me understand.  I think you’re all underestimating him.  He’s planning on killing Dubenich.”

The rest of the team looked astonished.  Eliot grimaced at Sophie though, like it was her fault.

“Eliot, just because something has happened to his mind doesn’t mean he’s still not in there, the old Nate.  The Nate that took down Blackpoole. Sure, his emotions are right on the surface, unlike before.”

“Yeah, because he was all about the sharing,” Hardison commented.

“So much so, he almost drank himself to an early grave,” Parker went on.

“Pissed off anyone who would get in his line of sight,” Eliot added.

“Until all he had was us,” Tara concluded.

“Before the accident though, am I right?”

“Sophie, he gets confused easily.  He can’t even go to the grocery store without help.”

Maybe Parker was right.  Everyday things he had a difficult time handling.  But could they help him out of the hole he was in by including him in what they did?

“Then you might want to ask him how he’s going to kill Dubenich.  By the look on his face, he already has a plan.”

They all looked at each other, throwing questions with just a look.  This is what Sophie had missed, this sense of team.

“He’s never done this before,” Eliot pointed out.

“He might forget before he tells us,” Parker said to the others.

“Do any of you have a plan to catch Dubenich?”

“You mean kill,” Eliot growled.

“I, for one, am not going to let him pull the trigger.  Do you think that would solve what is going on in his mind?” Sophie asked the group.

“No, it won’t.  I’ve seen the scans. There are definitely some issues that the stroke caused.  His doctors aren’t lying when they say he’s suffered some sort of episode.  You saw how he reacted when Hardison fell.”

“Slipped, Eliot.  Slipped.  As Parker said, I can be clumsy, or a hardass.  However you want to look at it.”

Nate came bounding down the stairs, jacket in place, almost like he looked when they were planning cons.  Picking up Hardison’s laptop, he started typing frantically.

“Hey, Nate.  Whoa there, buddy,” Hardison quickly said, making his way over to him.

“Right here.  Here’s where we start.  He’s gonna, well, right here.  Understand?  Please.”

Hardison looked at what Nate brought up on the laptop.  Turning his head, he looked at the screen for a few minutes.

“We need to do something.”

“Maybe you should go back upstairs.”

“We should be cautious.”

Sophie looked at Nate, really looked at him.  He stood amongst the others, not flinching.  Catching her looking at him, he smiled, grin crooked as ever, almost like he wanted her approval.

Hardison smiled a bit, but kept up his search.  The other three kept attempting to make Nate go back upstairs to the quiet.  He just stared at Sophie.

“Guys, guys.  Wait, just wait.  Nate, you wanna show us.”

“Hardison?” Eliot said quietly.  “What are you doing?”

“Hey, I’m the one who spends the most time with him.  I think he has something here.”

Hardison pulled all the data up on the screens.

“Run it, Hardison,” Nate said as he looked at the screen.


	6. Run It

Chapter Six-Run It

Sophie almost missed the first part of the information on the screen, but turned finally as Nate kept looking forward.

“Victor Dubenich owned, under an alias, a property here, right outside Chicago.  I missed that the first time I went through it.  It’s industrial, possibly a warehouse of some sort.  Looks like there’s been a lot of activity the last few weeks there.  Shipments coming in, guards.”

Hardison pointed to the satellite images on the screen.

“Nate, how’d you figure this out?” Eliot asked, very curious at what the answer could be.

“It was bothering me.  He had to have something in Chicago other than his company.  It’s just, he had that other warehouse, where he’d blown, well, almost blown us up.  It took months to find.”

He was coherent, Sophie thought.  The Nate Ford she knew from before.  How long it would last was the most interesting part.

“He just, um, he just, it was there.  I just had to find it.”

“I don’t know how he did, but it checks out.  He must have routed this thing through three different shell companies and it still wasn’t visible to the naked eye.  Nate, this is genius.”

Nate smiled back at Hardison.

“Now, let’s go kill him.”

“Nate, now let’s wait.”

“No, we need a plan.”

“Someone please tell me that’s not what we’re going to do.”

Sophie sighed at the others’ hesitation.  It would take a damn good plan to take Dubenich down.  Killing him probably wouldn’t solve a thing. They’d need to take him down for good though and have assurances that he wouldn’t get out, ever.  Sophie concluded a murder charge would solve that, except that Nate was probably the only witness to him killing Latimer.

“Nate, did anyone else see him kill Latimer?” Sophie asked.

“Sophie,” Eliot grimaced at her, urging her to be careful.

“No.  No.  Just me.”

“It won’t hold up in court.  He won’t hold up in court.”

“Let’s not make that judgment, alright?  Nate, what else do you have?” she asked him.

“Oh, just, um.  Just,” he trailed off.

“Take you time, Nate.”

Walking over to him, she took his hand in hers.  He closed his eyes, like he was seeing something in his mind just for himself.

“He somehow bought Latimer’s company for pennies on the dollar.  He’s been rebuilding his empire, but under a different name.  Look at Bremer Limited Partnership, um, Takata Holdings, and I have to think.  I just had it.”

“Just take it as it comes, Nate.”

With Sophie’s urging, he opened his eyes and looked at her.

“Seanchai.  It was Seanchai Investments.  That’s it.”

“That’s the Irish word for storyteller.  What in hell is he doing?”

Nate pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.  It wasn’t in his handwriting.

“Whose handwriting is this, Nate?” Sophie asked.

“My father’s handwriting.  He knew, he knew something about this before he died.”

Hardison pulled up records for the company, looking over its filings with the SEC and other important documents.  There looked to be no link to Dubenich unless you looked closer, much closer.  It would take Hardison some time to figure it out. He waved everyone else away while he worked.

Eliot fixed everyone food while they waited.  Nate stood exactly where he had when he’d come down the stairs, but Sophie directed him to sit at the dining table until Hardison was done.  He would have stood there and not moved unless someone else had intervened.  She was sure someone else would, especially Parker, but she took that on for herself.

He mechanically ate while watching what Hardison was doing.  Several times he got up to pace or stand directly behind Hardison.  Each time, Hardison told him to sit down.

“What?  This is just crazy.  OK, y’all.  I think I got it.”

They all practically ran to see what Hardison had figured out.  Nate just smiled again.  Sophie surmised he already knew what Hardison had found, but wanted the others to know too.  Just because he couldn’t speak the words, he could still figure things out.

“Seanchai Investments was known as Seanchai Industries.  Based in Ireland way back.  The name change happened around the time that Dubenich disappeared.  Under the radar.  If you look at the records, it’s existed since the 1930s.  Made all sorts of industrial types of things, mostly based in Ireland.  It almost went under in the 70s, but was revived for making a computer part that was essential.  Not gonna bore y’all with that.  Just understand it was still up and running.  The CEO at the time in the 70s was one Padraic Logue.  He did pretty well. One of his sons took it over in the 90s, brought it from the dark ages into the computer age.  Eamon Logue took control.  Then nothing from 1997 on until it appeared as Seanchai Investments two years ago.  Same company, files the papers and everything on the up and up.  Anyone wanna guess what happened?”

“Logue.  Padraic Logue.  He was my uncle.  Died in a bomb in the late 80s.  They thought it was Irish mob links.  How do we link Dubenich to this?  Bastard.  He ordered the hit on Padraic.  He worked for the Irish mob back then.  Fucking accountant.  He took all the profits from Seanchai and started his own company here in the States.  I have the papertrail to prove it.”

Oh god, as Sophie looked to Nate.  Dubenich had been gunning for Nate since when?  Or did he just want to destroy the whole family?

“Eamon?  What about Eamon?” Tara asked.

“He was in on it.  Wanted the company for himself.  He disappeared late 1997.”

“Probably dead,” Eliot said as they all looked at the screens.

“He sent it all, all the files on what happened, the books, everything. The real books that Dubenich cooked up.  Padraic probably figured it out and that’s why he’d been killed.  I found a box of my dad’s.  He had no idea what he had.  No idea.  He knew I was linked to Logue.  Probably thought he could take me down on that first con in addition to getting those airplane plans.  Kill two birds.”

The alarmed look on Nate’s face worried Sophie.  His face was getting paler by the minute, breath coming out a bit shorter and heavier.

“Nate, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.  We have to get him.  Prove this,” he said, obviously not looking all that great.

“Nate, let’s sit down.  It’s OK,” Eliot said as he noticed also that something was wrong.

“We have to, you know, we have to.”

So this is what they meant by Nate being somewhat normal one minute and incoherent the next.

“It’s time to rest, Nate.  Time to take your meds.  You’ll feel better,” Parker said as she came up next to him.

“I don’t want those things.  Don’t make me.”

And this is why they sometimes treated him like a child.  His face was crumbling right before her eyes, like he could control himself for short periods of time, then would lose it.

“Here, I’ll help him upstairs.  Would you like that, Nate?”

“Sophie. Yes, Sophie.  I love you.  You know that, right?”

All four team members stopped what they were doing and looked their way.  Taking his hand in hers, she led him upstairs, noticing how all of them looked at her, except for Parker.  Parker had her head turned, to not look at them.  That was curious to Sophie, but she had to deal with Nate, so she’d ask the thief later. 

“I did good, right?” Nate asked her as he entered his bedroom.

“Of course.  Now let Hardison handle the research.  If Dubenich is there or somewhere near, we’ll find him.”

“He won’t be there,” Nate said in finality.

“Then where is he?”

Nate looked her in the eyes, that same spark back just as it was before.

“He’s Dubenich.  Victor Dubenich is Eamon Logue.”

Now that was not what she was expecting.

“I found a photograph, after my father died.  That’s why he never wanted to meet with Jimmy.  Jimmy would have known him.  He would have known.  He’s my mother’s cousin.  He spend most of his life in the States, Chicago I think, but only went back to Ireland after to work with his father in the 80s.  He took over the company by killing his father.  Padraic sent everything, all the hard copies, to my mother.  It sat there for decades.  All of it.”

“Nate, you did a great job.”

Nate’s eyes teared up, his head shaking back and forth.  “I wish, I just wish.”

“Oh hon, what do you wish?”

“Could he have killed my mother?”

Sophie almost couldn’t breathe now.  What if he was right? What if Nate was right about this?  If Dubenich eliminated the whole family, then nothing could be traced back to him. 

“I thought she died of cancer?”

“It was so sudden.  It was so sudden.”

His hands twisted back and forth.  He was in distress, she could tell.

“Listen, Hardison will gather all the info he can.  Right now, you need to rest.”

“It’s all I do is rest.  I don’t want to rest anymore.”

“How about you just lie down on the bed, with me.”

“Well.”

Sticking her hand out for his, he took it, looking wary of her as he did.

“No meds?”

“No meds.”

“OK.”

Pushing her shoes off, she settled on his bed, inviting him to join her.  Hesitantly, he settled beside her, body stiff as he laid down on his back.

“Comfortable?”

“Not in the least,” he confided to her.

Sophie laughed at him.  He turned to look at her, to make sure she wasn’t making fun of him.  Placing her head against his chest, she gently raked her hand through his hair. He relaxed into her, sighing out as he did.  

“Soph?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t leave.”

“Not going anywhere.”

“No, I mean, once this is over.  Don’t leave.”

Raising her head, she looked down at him.  “I won’t.”

Kissing his cheek, she lowered her head once more, snuggling up to him as she did.


	7. This Is So Messed Up

Chapter Seven—This Is So Messed Up

“Nortriptyline, Escitalopram, Prozac.  What on earth?” Sophie exclaimed as she examined all the medications Nate was on. 

She stood in his bathroom, where she had gone after spending a few hours with Nate. He was resting comfortably now, curled up on the bed hugging a pillow.  Her friends’ ability to help treat him, taking him to many doctors, might have inhibited his ability to get better.  Could these drugs have been wrong for him?  They did say they’d tried Portland and had come back to Boston.  There had to be better treatments out there for him.  She’d have to do more research and sit down with all of them once this was over and figure out what to do for him.  She’d spend all of her money she had and more to figure him out and fix him.

It was almost dark outside once she made her way downstairs.  It was quiet except for sounds coming from the kitchen.  Eliot was stirring something as she entered.

“How’s he doing?” Eliot asked.

“Resting.”

“Do you realize that’s as coherent as he’s been since the stroke?  I don’t know what you’ve done, Sophie.”

“Why is he on so many medications, Eliot?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.  We’ve taken him to five different specialists and they all keep doing different things.  One time he’s catatonic, then he’s manic, then he’s crying all the time. I’ve tried, Sophie.  I’ve tried.”

Dropping the spoon in the pot he was stirring, he wiped his hands off on the towel that was hanging from his shoulder. 

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this, Eliot.”

“Pot calling the kettle black?”

“Yes, indeed.  How did this get so messed up?”

“Beats me.  We’ve still done good work.  No matter what’s happened.  I guess I just wish you could have been here to see it.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

“For now,” Eliot added.

Turning to stir again, Sophie pulled herself together as he looked at his sauce simmering.  So they all thought she’d bail on them.  Now that she was in their space, seeing what was happening, she’d never leave again.  How to convince them though?

“Forever, Eliot.”

“Yeah,” he said, not exactly believing it.

“One more thing.  He told me before he went to sleep that he thinks Victor Dubenich is Eamon Logue.  He has a photograph, an old one.  It could be, you know.  The hair, the eyes are very similar.”

“You have got to be kidding me.  If this hasn’t gotten any weirder.”

“He also thinks that Dubenich possibly killed his mother.”

Sauce went everywhere as Eliot slammed the spoon into the sauce, burning Eliot a bit.

“Shit. Goddamn it.”

“If he is right, if he is the last Logue alive other than Eamon, that could make some sense.  Family vendetta.  Eamon taking the company, using the money to start another, changing his name, identity.”

“Sophie, what do we do?  Can we believe what Nate says?  His mind is not quite there anymore.”

A sigh of exasperation escaped Sophie.  Sure, they’d all dealt with Nate these past few years, had been his rock, his family.  Were they not looking at anything objectively?  Nate’s emotions were so on the surface now, it didn’t take a few seconds to read him, whereas before Sophie never knew what he was thinking, much less feeling.  Could his personality change that much where both his thinking and feelings were altered?  His moments of clarity couldn’t be misinterpreted.  It was all Nate, the Nate from before.

“Do you trust him?”

Eliot pulled up short and stared her down.

“It’s not a matter of trust.  You haven’t been here.”

“No, I have not.  But there’s one thing that I’ve always done.  I trust Nate. I always have.  And I believe what he’s saying is true, at least to him.  We owe him to…”

“We owe him?  You mean you owe him.  Don’t throw that guilt shit back at me or any of the others.”

If Sophie could throw something at Eliot, make him realize how much he was hurting her right then, she would.  She knew exactly what she’d done.

“Then do nothing.  Dubenich will come for him, once and for all, to finish the job.”

Marching out of the kitchen, Sophie slammed the door on her way out.  She and Eliot would be at odds no matter what.  It looked to be that way.  The others didn’t seem to be as put out with her as he was.  She understood his stance, but she didn’t like it.  Her guilt was hers, not Eliot’s to assign.  That she would have to deal with later, when Victor Dubenich was no more.

 

It didn’t take Sophie long to pack up her things and head back to Nate’s place.  Not that she wanted to take control of Nate and lead the charge to take down Dubenich.  She did feel that she needed to repay a debt to Nate, so she’d see this out until the end.  As she started to enter the apartment building attached to McRory’s, she noticed that there was someone watching the place.  To the untrained eye, they wouldn’t have noticed.  She noticed, glancing back and forth to see if she had a tail also.  With only the van across the street, she hoped that Hardison had kept up with his surveillance.  They’d need it now more than ever.

Walking around the block, she ducked into an alley to make sure a tail wasn’t hot on her trail.  Her skills were still somewhat sharp, even with five years of not testing them.  Dropping her bag, she watched as a tail strolled by, looking to find her.  Just what she needed.  Someone knew she was part of this.  Only she knew exactly who her tail was.

Coming up behind him, just as he turned, her fist flew through the air, taking him down to the ground.  Nate always said that she had power behind her punches. 

“Sophie, dammit,” the figure on the ground yelled.

“I am giving you one chance to tell what in hell you’re doing here, Sterling?”

Sterling held his jaw, wincing as he stood up.  “Attempting to follow you.”

“Getting rusty, I see.”

“I just needed to talk to you.”

“Then don’t follow me.”

“We need to find a place to talk.”

Sophie raised her fist again, to ward off any kind of attack just in case.

“Just, just back off.  They’re all in danger.  Just let me.”

“Move,” Sophie growled back at him.

Coming to the back of McRory’s, Sophie opened the door with her key.  They’d never changed it, Sophie surmised.  It wasn’t open like it usually was.  That was curious.  Maybe had something to do with Eliot?

“That van around front yours?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Feds?”

Pulling out his phone, Sterling made a quick call, saying yes a few times.

“Apparently not the Feds.  I’m working on it though.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to warn your team.  There’s a lot of chatter that there’s going to be a big hit in the next few days.  I didn’t know you were here.  I thought…”

“You thought I had something to do with it?  James Sterling, when have you known me to get involved with something like that?”

“Never.  Listen, I need to talk to Nate.  It’s been ages, but I swear, I come in peace.”

Sophie didn’t know whether to believe him or not.  He looked sincere, but she had been wrong about him before.

“So, you and Maggie?”

“Whatever Eliot said about that, it’s not true.”

“What? That you broke her heart?”

“Oh, well.  I guess he did talk to you about some of it then.”

“I’ll relay the message, Sterling.  Just stay out of our way.”

“Why’d you come back?”

“Not sure,” she answered, shaking her head.

“Five years is a long time.  Nate’s turned into an utter bastard, you know that, don’t you?”

Eliot’s been protecting him, Sophie thought.  Sterling didn’t know what happened, or only knew the basics.  That’s why he asked her to meet with Nate.

“When’s the last time you talked to Nate?”

“Personally, a few years.  Look, I need to talk to him.”

“Come on, Sterling.  So help me god, if you try anything or do anything, I will kill you myself.  Just stay out of Eliot’s reach.  Follow my lead.”

“Stay out of Eliot’s reach?”

Waving him to the stairs, she pitched her bag onto her shoulder and climbed, Sterling right behind her.  Was it right to throw Sterling to the wolves in the form of Eliot?  And did he know the extent of Nate’s injury or even Hardison’s?  Maybe she wanted to get a response out of him, for him to see that he could possibly help the team, not try to put them in jail.

Stopping out the door, she turned to him finally.  She looked down at her feet, trying to figure out a way to tell Sterling that all was not well.  If he actually had been friends with Nate once, a long time ago, then maybe there would be sympathy.  If not, her fists would do the talking. Of course, she could ask Eliot, and even with his animosity toward her, she thought he’d comply.


	8. There's No Plan

Chapter Eight—There’s No Plan

“What do you know of the team’s most recent history?”

“Nate attempted to take down Dubenich and he slipped through Nate’s fingers.  I heard that Nate was injured.”

Sophie eyed him, hoping that he realized there was much more to the story.

“I assumed that it was business as usual. I’d heard of a few jobs, but I haven’t kept up with anything.  I’ve had my own issues to deal with, Sophie.  I didn’t need to add theirs to the mix.”

“No, I have to go,” came a scream from inside the door.

“Nate?” Eliot yelled back.

Pushing the door open, Sophie hoped that she could help out, only concerned now with Nate and what was going on.

“You see, right there.  Right there.  You, you have to.  I have to,” Nate stammered.

“Nate, it’s my job.  Just hold on.”

Eliot was holding him back with his arms.  Sophie could see how much effort Nate was putting into his supposed escape.  His arm muscles stood out, exerting as much pressure as he could to escape Eliot’s hold.

Tara strode past, weapon in hand, not saying two words as she did.

“No, Tara, don’t.  She’ll get hurt.  I have to protect her.  You.  I have to protect you.”

Sterling chased after Tara, not looking back at the scene in front of her.

“It’s my job, Nate,” Eliot said as he took Nate down to the floor.

“It’s just, I can’t let him do, I can’t let him do what he did to Jimmy.  Just let me go.”

Sophie knew she had to intervene, stop Nate from taking on something he was not prepared to do.

“Nathan Ford, you look at me,” she started.  “You let Eliot and Tara do their jobs.  Just let them do their jobs.  Calm down, please.  Please.”

Placing her hand on his face, he slowly closed his eyes at her touch, easing up on exerting pressure to break Eliot’s hold.

“Promise me you won’t bolt if Eliot lets go?”

“I know what I have to do.”

“But we don’t know the plan.”

“Right.  You’re right.  Hardison?”

Hardison came wheeling out of a back room, cables in his hand, like he ripped out the whole guts of every internet cable in the place.

“I don’t know how they did it, but someone tapped into my feed.  Dammit, Eliot.  They know exactly what I’ve been doing.”

“They got away,” Parker yelled as she entered the apartment from the window.  “Dammit.  Eliot, we have to move, now.”

“Safe house?”

The whirlwind of activity made Sophie feel lost, but when Eliot grabbed her hand, it was to give her a job.

“This is going to throw him for a loop.  Just watch over him.  We gotta pull out of here.”

“What did you think you were doing?” Tara yelled as she and Sterling arrived back in the room at the same time.

“If you killed him, Cole, then my people had no one to interrogate.  Just think.”

“The other one got away.”

“We have the one,” Sterling said as he pulled out his phone.  “Bury that guy as deep as you can.  If he so much as flinches, taser him.”

Nate kneeled on the ground before her, breathing heavily.  He still wasn’t out of the woods from whatever had happened.

“I have to go,” he pleaded with her, but this time without much venom as when Eliot held him back.

“Nate, hon, we all have to go.  Let’s just go and get you ready, OK?”

“Sophie, what’s wrong with him?” Sterling said from behind her.

“What is he doing here?” Eliot shouted from across the room, just realizing that Sterling was there.

“Jim?” Nate said, rising from his position.

“Nate?  What happened?”

Sophie could see by the look on Sterling’s face, he didn’t know what had happened to Nate.  Nate nervously looked around at everyone, finally turning his head to the side, like he was contemplating the scene before him.  She’d seen him to this too many times to count as long as she’d known him.  Before she could react, Nate’s fist flew through the air, past her head to connect with Sterling’s jaw, sending him down to the floor.

“You hurt Maggie,” he shouted to Sterling.

Before Sterling could recover, Tara drew her weapon and pointed it to Sterling’s head.

“Tara, put the gun away,” Eliot commanded.

“Why are you here?” she asked, seemingly calm, but Sophie knew better.

“Tara, don’t,” she urged her old friend.

Nate stood shaking beside her.  She wanted him nowhere near a weapon since his predicament had been caused by one.

“Answer me.”

“I am here to help.  There’s a hit out on Nate and possibly the rest of you.”

Sterling stood stock still as Tara debated putting her gun down and away.

“Tara, first rule of pointing a weapon?” Eliot reminded the team’s leader, knowing she was too close to Sterling.

Tara stowed the weapon in the back of her waistband as quickly as she had drawn it.  Sterling breathed a sigh of relief as she did.

“How much info did they get, Hardison?” Tara asked as she sighed her relief too.

“Only the fact that I know where Seanchai Industries is located and whatever information about them was floating on the web.  The rest is all hard copy.  Yay for antiquated files this time.”

“We need to move, Sophie,” Eliot reminded her.

“Can he travel?” Sophie asked Eliot over Nate’s shoulder.

He looked to be in a sort of a trance, not exactly realizing what was going on around him.  Sterling kept staring, worry etched on his face.

“Someone just please tell me what is going on?” Sterling asked, a bit of pleading in his voice.

“Soph, I’ll take him upstairs,” Parker said as she took Nate’s hand in hers.

“Hey, why don’t we go and get some of your stuff?  You can hold Mr. Bunny if you want?”

Nate’s eyes darted back and forth, like he couldn’t focus on anything.

“I just, can’t.  Focus,” he chanted.

“It’s OK if you can’t focus right now.  It’s OK,” Parker’s soothing voice told him as she urged him up the stairs.

“Focus, focus, focus, focus,” Nate kept up as he followed Parker up the stairs.

“Now why the hell are you here?” Eliot growled, directly next to Sterling in record time.

“Listen, Eliot.  International channels caught word that there was a hit ordered.  I was just following up, worried.  Could someone please tell me what in hell is going on?  What is wrong with Nate?” Sterling asked again, voice rising at the end.

Sophie was good at reading people, even Sterling.  She’d beaten him more times than she’d beaten Nate way back in the day.  Sure, he was an angry man at times, a bit bitter and sarcastic.  The look on his face was none of these.  He was concerned about Nate, to the point where his face looked sad and like he could cry.  Sterling cry? 

“Hardison?” Sterling noticed now, eyes going wide.  “I, I didn’t know.”

Hardison sadly smiled his way.  “Yeah.  Looks like I got the longer end of the stick, if you know what I mean.  Nate’s stick is so much shorter.”

Hardison wheeled away, gathering a laptop and other supplies that he might need.

“Nate suffered a stroke after Dubenich shot him, while he was in surgery,” Tara offered as she started to help Hardison with his stuff.

“Oh god.  Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Sophie was still wondering the same about her, but she didn’t want to voice that opinion.

“Just, we didn’t,” Eliot answered.

“Does Maggie know?” Sterling asked.

“No,” Eliot quietly told the man.

Parker came down the stairs with a bag in tow, Nate holding Mr. Bunny.

“See, isn’t he great?  You take care of him for me.  We might need him.”

The tears that had been threatening to fall decided to do just that as she saw how lost Nate looked.  Parker had dressed him for the weather, with a baseball cap on his head in addition to his jacket.

“Sophie?” he called out.

“Right here, Nate.”

“Are you coming?  Parker thinks we’re not safe.  We have to move.  Make sure Hardison is OK.  You too.”

As usual, Nate’s goal of keeping them safe roared to the front of everything.  He’d never forget that’s what he wanted to do, even if he couldn’t really perform that function anymore.

“All good, Nate,” Hardison called from across the room.

“I’m safe, Nate.  If you’re with me,” she reminded him.

“I love you, Sophie,” he said as he squeezed Mr. Bunny.

Before she could stop herself, Sophie took his hand in hers.

“Oh, sweetie, I love you too,” she answered back.

Parker huffed at her declaration, yanking the bag in her arm forward and past Sophie.  Not only did she have to deal with Eliot and his issues with her guilt, she now thought that Parker didn’t want Sophie to have any feelings for Nate.  Was that why Parker had pointedly told her that she was with Hardison now?  Which was it?  Did she have feelings for Nate too?  Five years were just too long to figure out in one afternoon.

“We move in five minutes,” Eliot declared.  “And Sterling, you’re coming with us until we figure out if you’re behind all this.”

“No way we fittin’ in the van, Eliot,” Hardison reminded the hitter.

“It’s gonna have to happen.”

And it did, even if they all had to sit on the bags and Hardison’s stuff.  Eliot didn’t want to chance having another vehicle in which to keep track.  Nate held Sophie’s hand the whole time the van moved.  Sterling stayed as far away as he could, which wasn’t much since it was very tight with the equipment and Hardison’s wheelchair.

“Lucille,” Nate said, with a smile on his face.

“Lucille, six point o, Nate.”

“Still smells,” Nate added.

Everyone snickered, even Sterling.

“Hey, we still workin’ here, folks.  My domain.  See if I let any of you in here again after this is over with.”

“I didn’t know,” Sterling said to Sophie as they bounced around in the back.

“Neither did I,” she answered as she looked to the front where Parker and Eliot sat.  “By committee.”

“I am so sorry, Sophie.”

So was Sophie.  The team had closed ranks, not trusting anyone but themselves instead of calling her, Sterling, Maggie or possibly anyone else who could have helped. 

Nate laid his head on Sophie’s shoulder as they drove to wherever the safe house was.  They’d taken both hers and Sterling’s cell phones, plus looked over everything that Sophie had brought with her. Thank goodness they hadn’t made her abandon her clothes.

“I have to kill Dubenich, Soph.”

Sterling’s eyes bugged out of his head as he listened to Nate be truthful.

Sophie turned to look him dead in the eyes, hoping that he understood that wouldn’t happen.  Sure, she was planning on doing it herself, if she got the chance.  Looking around the van, she didn’t think that would happen.  Tara was trigger happy as it was, Eliot was itching to hit something and Parker was willing to sacrifice a lot right at that moment. She’d have to wait in line for her turn.

“I’m not going to let him kill the rest of my family.”

Nate was lucid. Sophie was sure of that. 

“We won’t let him, darling,” she assured him.

“He will go down, Nate,” Sterling added.

“Sterling, make sure, protect Sophie.”

There he went again, thinking that someone else had to protect Sophie. 

“I will, Nate,” Sterling told his old friend, winking at Sophie as he did.

 


	9. Safe House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of feel like I have plot holes the size of New Jersey in planning what they are going to do. Oh well. I want to get to the feelings!!!

Chapter Nine—Safe House

Being crammed into a van for over an hour didn’t make anyone’s mood any better.  The safe house was located in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Boston.  The lot was weedy and derelict, windows boarded up.  Eliot pulled the van to the back, under a shelter that couldn’t be seen from the street.  After offloading Hardison and the rest of them, Eliot made sure that the vehicle couldn’t be seen by prying eyes.

“We’ll stay here for the night, then we need to move to another location, just in case,” Eliot told the rest of the crew.

As Hardison set up his gear, Sophie found a bedroom for Nate to rest.

“Here you go,” she said as she settled Nate down on the bed.

“They don’t believe me, do they?”

“What about Nate?”

“Everything.  It’s true.”

“They do believe you.  Now, with everything that’s happened, I think that they do.”

“It took me a lot of work.  Hardison wouldn’t let me use the internet.  I had to sneak.”

Sophie laughed a little at that.  Nate had to sneak to get on the internet?

“How did you pull that off?”

“I stole one of his laptops when he was out one day.  Then I hid it well.  He thought that Eliot took it.”

She could just imagine the fights that ensued on that theft.

“You’re becoming quite the thief.”

“I told you I was a thief.”

“You did?”

“Well, I tried to tell you.  I wanted to tell you.  I told them I was, after they put me in jail, you see.”

He finally admitted that he was a thief. That had to be progress on his part.  Of course, with the drinking and the attitude, she was sure it wasn’t easy on any of them.

“I heard from Eliot about you going to jail.”

“I missed you, Sophie.”

“I know.  I missed you too.”

“Really?”

Eliot was right in that he couldn’t remember some conversations from before.  She’d already told him that she’d missed him. Did he just need to hear it again?

Calling Nate sweet was never a word she’d use to describe him.  The kiss that he placed on her lips was so sweet, it made her ache.  It made her ache for the Nate from before, knowing that he’d never come back.

“You OK, Nate?” she asked as he pulled back.

“I was supposed to do that, you know.  Kiss you.  All along, I was supposed to do that.  When you came back.  Now you’re back.”

She could tell he looked exhausted.  Kissing his forehead, she gently coaxed him to lay down on the bed, stroking his head as she did.

“I love you, Sophie,” he whispered as his eyes closed.

It broke her heart in pieces to see him like this. 

“Sleep, my love.  Sleep,” she told him as she rubbed his back.

As she turned to get out of the bed once Nate had fallen asleep, she was startled by Parker standing directly beside her.  She almost screamed, but stayed herself just in time.

“We need to talk,” Parker whispered.

“Yes, apparently we do.”

“Bathroom.”

Parker led the way, opening the creaking door.  At least it was clean, Sophie thought.  Although it looked to be abandoned from the outside, Eliot had figured out a good way to keep it shielded from prying eyes so it could be a real safe house. 

“Nate?”

“Oh, he’s tired, but OK.”

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about.”

Sophie sighed as she sat on the closed toilet.  Parker wanted to interrogate her now?  Wasn’t Eliot’s interrogation enough?

“Parker, you’ll have to be more direct right now.  I’m out of practice speaking Parker-speak.”

“He, you, you see,” she started, pacing in front of Sophie.  It was a very short pace.

“Parker, if you’re asking if I love Nate, I think it’s obvious.”

Was it obvious?  Sophie had loved Nate for so long, she couldn’t remember a time in her adult life when she didn’t.  Whatever Parker had to say wouldn’t change that.  There, she thought.  At least she had admitted it to herself.

“Don’t play with his feelings, Sophie.  Just don’t.”

Parker had stopped to point down at Sophie.

“I’m not playing, Parker.  I’m not lying, I’m not conning, I’m not grifting.”

“He keeps getting his heart ripped to pieces.  Now, it’s different.  It’s like he knows things.  It’s kinda scary.  You know, he told me that I needed to tell Hardison that I had feelings for him.  This is Nate, remember.”

Was Parker just in awe of Nate?

“Do you love him, Parker?  Nate, I mean?”

“Of course I do.”

Sophie’s eyes closed at that admission.

“Oh, not like that.  Geez.  Get a grip.  Hardison, feelings.”

“Oh good.  Good.  I’ve been gone.  It’s just, Eliot told me about Maggie.  I just didn’t know.”

Parker leaned up against the wall opposite of her, her face in shadow since it was starting to get dark. Sophie had no idea if they could turn on lights.

“Yeah, about that.” Parker smirked her way.  “Tara too.  It was just for a few months.  I thought they’d kill each other.”

“What?”

“Well, you know that I’m so tortured in a sexy way he gets.  Tara kinda fell for it.  I warned her,” Parker finished with a sing-song voice.

“But she and Eliot?”

“Oh, yeah.  Nate’s fault.  He also told Eliot that he needed to ask Tara out. That happened while we were in Portland.”

Nate was giving relationship advice in his state?

“And he was lucid?”

“As I said before, he has his good days and his bad days.”

“Obviously.”

“He says whatever he’s feeling and sees what everyone else is feeling.  Kind of like you did, when you were here.  Only he’s not as diplomatic about it.  Just kind of blurts it out.”

Kind of like what Parker sometimes did with everyone, Sophie thought, but she wasn’t pointing that one out.

“So what do I do?”

“Let’s just get through this stuff.  We have an appointment with another doctor in a few weeks.  He does seem better, Sophie.  You should have seen him before.”

Yes, she should have seen him before, a long time before.

“Why didn’t any of you call me?”

“I wanted to.”

“And?”

“Eliot and Tara didn’t.  Hey, we’re a democracy now without Nate being boss.”

“Hardison?”

“Wasn’t able to.  That was right after you know.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

Parker took her hand and squeezed.  “I’m glad you are.”

“Just don’t be mad at me.”

Parker instantly hugged her tight.  “Sorry.  I won’t,” she told Sophie in that clipped voice that Sophie knew so well.

 

“Hired gun,” Eliot said as he and Sterling stood in the living room.

Sophie had decided after helping Nate get to sleep, she had to help the others formulate a plan.

“He didn’t know anything other than to make your life a challenge.  Bastard,” Sterling agreed.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Find Dubenich, fast,” Hardison said as he typed away at his laptop.  “Looks like whatever tap they put on my network they didn’t get as much info as I thought.  I had a lot of it encrypted, which means they’d have to have someone as good as me to figure it out.  The faster we find him, the less information he has access to.  How they gained direct access though?”

“Hardison, the back door was locked when I came in with Sterling,” Sophie pointed out.

“We never lock that door.”

“Well, we lock it at night, not during the day,” Tara reminded the group.  “So whoever got entry thought we did.”

“So the question now is where is he?” Eliot asked the rest of them.

Did Nate have that answer?  He found where Dubenich had surfaced after two years.  Where would the bastard hole up though?

“I’ve got the facial recognition software running on several key intersections near Seanchai Industries.  At least it might tell us if he’s been in the area.  Nothing yet, but I just started it a few hours ago.  Also, anything linked to Seanchai I have pegged.  There might be more though.  It’s gonna take time.”

“So Dubenich bought Latimer’s company for pennies on the dollar.  Latimer had bought up several of the companies that we took down for pennies on the dollar.  Hardison, can you poke around at VerdAgra or Beckwith’s company or any of the others,” Tara commented.

“VerdAgra was the only one where Latimer didn’t buy them out for pennies on the dollar because of the water rights.  Scan that property, Hardison.”

“OK, Eliot.  Tara too.  I can only work so fast. Oh, and we already have a hit, folks.  Dubenich was seen with the CEO of VerdAgra. Tapped into their internal feeds.  They store that stuff, you know.  Bingo.”

“When?” Eliot asked.

“Less than two days ago.  Here, in Massachusetts.  Where could he have gone after that?” Hardison said, still typing away.  “OK, but how is he doing this?  He’s supposed to be on the run, right?  How is he fooling all the agencies?”

Sophie looked at the grainy photo taken while he was at VerdAgra. It had to be him, but he looked a bit younger or slimmer. 

“Darker hair, probably dyed, he lost quite a bit of weight.  Different glasses, probably wears a hat or something.  It’s hard to tell from this surveillance photo, but that’s him.  Just think about how easy it is for me to change my look with a few small things.  Give himself a different accent and how he carries himself. You would think though he’d want to stay as far away as possible from us.  Unless we have something he wants.  Eliot, where are those old files of Nate’s, from Seanchai Industrial?”

Sophie divided up all the information between herself, Tara, Parker and Eliot.  Sterling spent his time on the phone with his agents who were trying to figure out their captive and who hired him. 

“There’s nothing here,” Parker said, flipping through her file once again.

“Ok, so we know that Nate never met Dubenich before the job in Chicago.  We also know that Dubenich is possibly related to him.  Why would he go after Nate?  He targeted Nate in Chicago.  Or did he?”

Sophie shuffled through the papers, wondering if they’d misjudged Dubenich that much.  Was he that smart or just figured it all out after Chicago?  He did have a lot of time in prison to formulate a plan of action.

“Maybe this is why Dubenich wants Nate out of the way,” Tara announced, waving a crumbled up piece of paper in her hands.

Sophie grabbed it from her friend and scanned it over and over again.  This had to be it.  Hardison did the same thing.

“I don’t know if this will hold up in court, folks. I’m not a lawyer.  Nate might, maybe would have known what it meant.”

Sterling took a look at it too.  “Huh.  Explains a lot.”

“What?” Eliot almost shouted.

“Looks like Padraic left everything to his sister.  Cut Eamon out totally.  Eamon might have known but didn’t have the proof.  If it had stayed buried, then Dubenich would have kept the millions he made off of Seanchai and no one would have been the wiser.  Jimmy must have stirred a hornet’s nest,” Hardison explained to everyone.

“In more ways than one.  You think he put two and two together before he died?” Sophie asked everyone.

“He had to.  He was so cryptic when we met with him at the Patent Office as he was stealing some plans,” Eliot added.

“He did go back to the motherland as Jimmy Logue.”

Hardison was right, Sophie thought.  If he’d gone to Ireland for a short time, somehow put two and two together, introduced himself as Jimmy Logue, then anyone there who knew Dubenich would have forwarded the information.  Jimmy certainly did open a can of worms. 

“Where’d the box come from?” Sophie asked the rest of the team.

“Nate had it stored with some of his stuff from childhood.  We pulled it out after Nate’s accident, hoping that he’d like to see some of the stuff his mother saved.”

Oh dear, Sophie thought.  Parker must have thought it would help, when it did in some way.  It kept Nate busy enough to look through, to come to some conclusions about his distant family, even if he had never met them.  It all made sense to her.  Jimmy contacted Dubenich, probably trying to blackmail him, Dubenich sent him on a job to retrieve some documents from the Patent Office.  Once Jimmy had these, then he’d kill both Jimmy and Nate.  Only Dubenich didn’t realize that Nate’s team would do anything and everything to protect him.

“He’s not going to leave this alone.  He’s going to keep coming after Nate until he’s dead,” Sophie realized, standing to pace.

“Not if we get there first, Sophie,” Eliot growled back.

“And boom.  Facial recognition software has pinpointed him.  VerdAgra.  Ten minutes ago.”

Immediately Sterling made a call to his agents while the rest of them gathered their gear.

“We go in ten.  Stay out of my agents’ way.  We’ll take care of this.  Local law enforcement has been contacted.  He won’t be able to escape.  But if any of you try to kill him, then I can’t protect you.”

Sterling was right, Sophie surmised.  If they got involved too much, they could blow it for Sterling catching Dubenich.

“Guys, he’s gone,” Parker announced, coming from the bedroom.  “Nate’s gone.”


	10. Now There's A Plan

Chapter Ten—Now There’s a Plan

Sophie ran into the bedroom, hoping that Parker was wrong.  The window was open, no sign of Nate at all.  Who knew how long he’d been gone.  She’d left him hours before, not realizing that he perhaps needed to be looked after. 

“Do you think he knows?” Sophie asked as Eliot came up behind her.

“Yeah.  I do. Sterling’s weapon is also missing.  He must have lifted it.”

“Dammit, Nate,” Sterling could be heard off in the distance.

“He’s going to kill Dubenich.”

 

It took around a half an hour to arrive at VerdAgra.  The building had been surrounded long before that, people had been evacuated, and the place locked down.

“No sign of Nate,” Sterling announced as he trotted over to the team.  “Doesn’t mean he’s not in there.”

“If they didn’t change their security, then he knew exactly how to get in there,” Parker pointed out.

She and Eliot had donned FBI jackets while Tara and Sophie had pulled out Interpol IDs so they could be on site without being questioned.  Opening the van door, Hardison poked his head out, motioning them to come to him.

“I tapped into a few of their cameras.  Right there,” Hardison pointed at the screen from the outside camera.

Sophie watched as Nate lifted a card from someone leaving the building.  How could he still be that good, or even better?  He was always OK at lifting things, but not close to Parker or Sophie in that skill.  His lift was smooth and done so efficiently; if she didn’t know what she was looking for, she wouldn’t have noticed it.

“Dubenich still in there?”

“Possibly.  Since he looks different, I could have missed him.”

“Go through the footage with a fine tooth comb.  We can’t miss Dubenich this time.  Interpol is not the only agency that wants their hands on him.”

Sterling hurried away to confer with his agents.  Local police were swarming the area too, which would make it next to impossible to get into the building.

“Parker, we need a way in.”

Pulling up the schematics of the building, Parker pointed to a part off on the side of the building, near the back.

“Maybe there.  Skylight.  I could cut through.  That doesn’t mean I won’t set something off.  Or I could crawl in through the ventilation shafts on the roof.  I just have to get access.”

Hardison tapped away until finding what he needed.

“Roof’s the best access.  Right here,” he pointed to where he thought Parker could get in.

“I’m gonna need a card though.  Full access.”

Eliot pulled Sterling aside to ask for that.  They argued for a few minutes, but Sterling finally agreed and raced to find someone who had been in the building that was now milling outside.

“Parker, you have to find us a way in,” Sophie begged.

“Right here.  Only opens from the inside.”

Eliot looked over at Sterling and held up three fingers.

“I’m going,” Tara announced.

“No, you’re not.  One, we need help with an escape.  Second, we have to get Hardison out of here if it all goes to shit.  Third, I need someone to watch over Sterling.  You’ll intimidate him.”

Tara groaned when Eliot mentioned that.

“You have before.”

“I know.  I hate working with him.  Can I punch him if he gets in the way?”

“Hon, you can do whatever you want.  Just remember he can arrest your ass.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Sophie watched the byplay between her two friends.  It was almost the conversations she used to have with Nate, but without as much venom.  Their banter was always laced with an undertone of competition and flirtiness.  This was just two people who knew how the other worked.  Oh how she missed working with a team, this team who were some of the best in the world at what they did.

It didn’t take long for Parker to make it to the roof and wiggle her way into the air vent.  Standing to the side of the door, Sophie breathed in and out slowly.  She knew once she made it inside, she and the other two would have to find Nate and bring him in to safety before he found Dubenich or Eamon or whatever his name was.  It was unbelievable that Dubenich and Nate were related.  Nate was on a mission and might not want to be stopped.

Parker peeked out of the door, waving them in. 

“Now people, I don’t have access to anything else.  I can’t even pull up the IDs that are still in the building.  Who knows which one Nate lifted?  Go to the security office and you might get access.  I can walk you through it.  Just be careful.”

Eliot pulled out his gun and waved them to stay behind him.

“Eliot, gun?” Now Sophie was worried.

“I’m not taking any chances with Dubenich.”

She trusted him to use the weapon properly.  Sure, he didn’t like them, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use one.  As quietly as they could, they made their way to where security was located.  That was when they realized they were not the only ones in the building except for Nate and Dubenich.  Two others stood at the monitors as Eliot entered.  They were muscle, Sophie surmised. Huge and hulking by the looks of it.

Eliot made a sound right outside the door to pull goons out so that Parker could get in there to get to work.  It worked like a charm, with Eliot laying the two out without much effort.  He did have the element of surprise in his favor, so their size wasn’t a problem for him.

Parker sat at the keyboard, pulling up footage.  Sophie could tell that there were at least twelve more signals on the screen, and that didn’t include them.  Ten more to go through, probably for Eliot.

“Which one is Nate?”

Parker looked, then pointed one out that was a single. 

“This one keeps starting and stopping, like looking around a corner, then backtracks.  The others are all clustered in twos and threes. All the others.  That means Dubenich is not alone.”

“Get me access, Parker.”

With the click of the keyboard and something that she plugged into the system, Hardison was in.

“I will guide you to Nate’s position.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t find Dubenich before that.”

As Hardison told them where to turn and when, Sophie was frightened of what she’d find.  Nate wasn’t damaged, he was angry.  If he had made it all the way to VerdAgra, had made it in and is now wandering around trying to find Dubenich, then that was the sign of a man who wasn’t brain damaged.  It was his control center, the emotional things in life that he couldn’t handle now.  Not like he could before, but he would bury those things deep.  Now he couldn’t.

“Up ahead.  Be careful.”

“I know, Hardison,” Eliot said as he put his weapon away.

“Nate, it’s us,” Parker whispered as they crept down the hallway.

Instead of stopping, Nate barreled into them, pushing them out of the way.  That was not what Sophie had expected out of him.  She gave chase since she was the only one that didn’t fall to the ground.  Both Eliot and Parker weren’t far behind.

“Hardison, location?”

“Up ahead.  Three people coming up the side corridor.”

Sophie made it across before the three saw her so that she could keep after Nate.  She could see him crouched at an intersection down the hall.

“There’s two directly in front of Nate, Soph.  Be careful.  Those other three are going to find you if you don’t get him into a room and quick.”

She was hesitant to come up behind him to drag him to safety, but she had no choice.  He glared at her as she grabbed his arm and yanked him, but actually knew what she was trying to do.  As quietly as she could she closed the door shut before the group of three passed by.

“What are you doing here?” he rasped her way.

“Saving you, you idiot,” she whispered back.

“I don’t need saving.  Dubenich.”

“Is here.  We know.  If you had just waited.”

“He would have escaped.  I know it.”

“We have to get you out of here.”

“Not until I kill Dubenich.”

“No.”

They were in a standoff with no way out of it.  In a way, Nate was right.  If Dubenich wasn’t buried somewhere he didn’t have access to the outside, then he’d just figure out how to come back.  Sterling had promised them he could provide that.

“No, Nate.  You don’t get to play judge and jury. Not this time.  Please.”

“He hurt Alec.  He killed my dad.  I can’t let him get away with that.”

He looked so lost standing there with a gun in his hand. 

“And he hurt you.  I don’t want to lose you again.”

“I, I can’t, what do I do?  He just, he took so much.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I need to fix this.”

Sophie walked to him, hoping to take the gun away before someone was hurt.  Looking down at her, she could see the turmoil reflected in his eyes.  Placing her hand on his face, she hoped that he’d see reason.  The feeling of his lips against hers again was welcome. She’d missed him so much these past few years, it ached sometimes.  Now he was here, she’d save him finally and could figure out how to help him.

“Bravo, bravo.  Oh, how I relish this scene.  The great Sophie Devereaux returns to save Nathan Ford.  I feel a bit sorry for wrecking the reunion.  Just a little.”

Nate closed his eyes when he heard Dubenich’s voice.  She could hear Hardison screaming at her through the comm, Eliot telling her to stall.  Then nothing.

“At least I have the two of you in the same room so I can end this once and for all.  The other two are being taken care of as we speak.”

Sophie heard nothing on her comms, not even Hardison’s voice.  Somehow their way of communication had been cut off.  It was just her and Nate now.  Looking down, she saw Nate grip the gun tightly in his hands.  Dubenich had no idea what Nate held in his hands.  Sophie could see that Dubenich had a weapon, but hadn’t raised it.  Nate hadn’t made a move to turn around, only stood there.

“Nate, I’m sorry,” she whispered into his ear.

The safety wasn’t on, thank goodness.  It only took a mere second or two to take the gun out of Nate’s shaking hands, push him to the side and fire.  Dubenich was taken by surprise.  He probably never thought that she could do something like that.  The one shot pushed him back and onto the floor, writhing in pain.  He tried to point his weapon at them, but Sophie shot again, this time getting better aim.  He stilled on the floor after that.

“Sophie?” Nate cried.

“He’s gone.  It’s OK now.”

“What did you do?  I had to do that.”

“No, never. Never,” Sophie declared, trying to hold him. 

 


	11. Running Again

Chapter Eleven—Running Again

It took almost twenty four hours before Sophie could be released and cleared of shooting Dubenich.  Since his weapon was found on his body, it was clear that he would have killed either one of them.  Sterling was there to make sure Sophie’s alias stood up to scrutiny.  And since it was Sterling’s gun, he damn well made sure everything was done to make it look on the up and up.

Parker had taken Nate back to the apartment after all that had happened.  He was getting more and more agitated, kept saying that Dubenich was his and how could Sophie do that to him.  It was heartbreaking hearing that from him, but she knew he didn’t understand what had happened.

When she walked into the apartment, it was three in the morning. No one was about, so she climbed the stairs to Nate’s space on the second floor.  As she pushed his door open, she saw him curled up on his bed, Mr. Bunny tucked beside him.  Parker laid in a chair, legs curled up.  As quietly as she could, Sophie closed the door so they could rest.

Making her way back down the stairs, she gathered her suitcase and started to leave.

“Running again?” Eliot said from the shadows.

“Yeah.  Nate won’t understand what I did.  I didn’t want to make things worse.”

“If you leave, that will definitely make things worse.  He’s been asking for you constantly.  I had to restrain him twice already.  That’s why I’m sitting down here in the dark.  He wanted to go after you, he thought that somehow Dubenich wasn’t dead and had you.”

“You all, you do such a good job of taking care of him. I just, I don’t feel that…” Sophie managed to get out before starting to cry.

Eliot stood before her, hands on her arms, like he wanted to shake her.

“We’ve all made mistakes.  Hell, I know I have.  Yeah, we can take care of him.  We will.  That’s my job.  But tell me this?  Are you leaving because you don’t want to be here with us or because you’re guilty that you left?”

Sophie always felt guilty that she left when she did.  She certainly wanted to be there with them now.  She’d missed them all fiercely, especially Nate.

“I don’t want him to hate me.”

“Oh, sweetheart, he will tell you if he hates you.  Believe me, he will.”

Leaning into him, Sophie realized that Eliot was right.  The old Nate would never tell anyone how he felt.  The new Nate told everyone exactly what he felt and more.  Could she take that honesty?  Would she be able to help him through this?

“Sophie?” Nate said, coming down the stairs.

“That’s my cue to leave,” Eliot whispered to her as he pulled away from her.

As Sophie wiped her tears away, she watched as Eliot left.  There was no hiding behind the hitter, no one to rely on if Nate lost it.  She was on her own.

“Are you alright?”

“I thought you weren’t coming back.  I told Eliot that I had to find you.”

Worry was etched on his face.  Crossing his arms over his chest, he stood almost defiantly in front of her, like he wanted an explanation of what had happened to her in those twenty-four hours.

“Sterling needed statements.  Being charged with murder just wouldn’t fit into his plans.  And it was his gun.”

“Too damn easy to lift it.”

Sophie smiled a little at Nate’s admission.

“You’ve gotten way too good at that.”

“It’s a hobby.”

“Don’t tell that to Parker.”

“What?  She’s the one whose been working with me.”

That didn’t surprise Sophie that the thief would try to connect with Nate this way. 

“Were you leaving?” Nate said as he looked over at her suitcase by the door.

“I don’t know.  I seriously don’t know.”

“What can I do?  I can get better.  I know I can,” he pleaded, hands fisting at his sides.

Sophie was exhausted, running on adrenaline and not much else.  Guiding him over to the chairs, she sat him down, groaning when she found her seat.  Her legs were going to give out if she didn’t sit.  Her head had started spinning before coming into Nate’s place.  Now she wasn’t sure whether she’d be able to have a conversation with him.  She had to though.

“It has nothing to do with you.  It’s me.  I don’t want to make you worse.”

“Worse?  No, no.  You don’t.”

Grabbing her hand in his, he brought it up to his lips, placing light kisses as he did this. 

“You’ve always have made me better, a better man, a better human.”

“You were angry with me, for Dubenich, for staying away.”

“No.  Never, never, never, never.”

She could tell he was getting agitated with the conversation.  He squeezed her hand tight, never letting go of it.

“Tell me what you’re feeling then?  I don’t understand, Nate.”

Hopping down off the seat, he stood between her legs now, drawing her closer until their foreheads touched.

“I love you, Sophie Devereaux,” he breathed as his lips touched hers.

Coming up for air a few minutes, later, Sophie pulled away to look Nate in the eyes.  Smiling, she stroked his cheek, trying not to cry again.

“I love you too, Nate.”

“I know you do.”


	12. Two Years Later

Chapter Twelve--Two Years Later

Sophie watched out the window as Nate worked his hands into the dirt, planting a new cutting he had taken not two weeks before.  The sun shone down on his bare arms, making them darker by the day.  Spending his days outside had created a farmer’s tan, but luckily she had convinced him to wear a hat every day so he wouldn’t burn his face again like he had a few weeks before.

As she stood looking at him from the doorway, she sighed her relief that he was doing better.  His mind was calmer, his actions not like what he was before, before being shot, but something different.  She liked this new Nate though.  So different from the one she met all those years ago, and so different from the one she worked with those two years.

“Hey, I planted more squash.”

“It better be butternut and not zucchini.”

“Yes, dear.”

Rising from his position on the ground, he wiped his dirty hands on his jeans, not worrying about making stains as he did.

“We should take a walk, well, before, you know.”

Sometimes he forgot what he was going to say, but she could usually interpret how he was feeling and what he wanted to say.

“They’ll be here soon.  Don’t worry.”

“You should sit and I can take care of you.”

“You always take care of me.”

Sliding to his knees, Nate kissed her growing belly gently, hugging her as he did.  It had happened, she didn’t know how, but they were going to add to their family.  It had never been her intention to become a mother and she thought she was too old.  But she wasn’t and everything was falling into place.  At first, she thought that Nate wouldn’t be able to take the news and would fall apart.  Of course, he did the exact opposite and was so happy that she had to tell him to put her down as he swung her around as he laughed. 

“Hello, little one,” he said as he spoke to her belly.  “You’re going to have the best mom ever.”

The responding kick said it all.  This was where she had wanted to be, exactly here, with Nate, no matter how different he was from before.

“I can’t wait for you to meet all your aunts and uncles.”

“Just as long as Parker doesn’t teach her how to rappel, then we’re set.”

Nate laughed a little.  “Then your Uncle Eliot can teach you how to punch and Uncle Alec can teach you all about computers.”

Her little family was what it was.  Going back, facing the music, was the best decision she could have ever made. 

“Oh, baby,” Parker cried when she saw Sophie and Nate in the garden.

“Get in line, Parker,” Nate told her as he hugged her tighter.


End file.
